Somalis head for Sudan talks to stave off war

MOGADISHU - Sudan's president is to mediate in talks between Mogadishu's new Islamist rulers and Somalia's interim government on Thursday.

The Arab League-sponsored talks are aimed at heading off new war in the Horn of Africa nation.

Tensions have risen between the government and the Islamists since the latter kicked US-backed warlords out of Mogadishu on June 5 and went on to seize a strategic swathe of Somalia.

The government's call for international peacekeepers and its assertion that Muslim fundamentalists from around the world helped the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) secure its victory in Mogadishu have infuriated the Islamists.

The two sides seemed unlikely even to meet face-to-face.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is to lead the Khartoum talks under the auspices of the Arab League.

President Abdullahi Yusuf, whose weak interim government is based in the provincial town of Baidoa, was on his way to Sudan for the talks. But ICU chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was sending a 10-man delegation.

"The government will not meet with the Islamic courts face-to-face but will agree after their meeting with the Sudanese president on when and where to hold talks inside Somalia," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.

Ahmed, the moderate face of the ICU, said in Mogadishu the talks were "an opportunity to present the political view of the Islamic Courts to the international community."

Foreign powers are scrambling to react to the Islamists' takeover of Mogadishu, and fear conflict with the government.

"The meeting tomorrow in Khartoum is crucial," said a Western diplomat. "Even if there is no substantial agreement ... just sitting together would be a step forward."

After the Islamist victory there was hope they would work with the government - formed in neighbouring Kenya in 1994 - to install the first truly national administration for 15 years.

But the two sides quickly moved apart. The Islamists accuse Yusuf of encouraging an incursion by his ally, Ethiopia. The government says that is a lie to justify an attack on Baidoa.

Abdirahin Isse, a close aide to Ahmed, said the ICU may reconsider its decision to hold dialogue if the government does not change its mind on the foreign peacekeepers' issue.

The ICU leadership also includes more hardline Islamists. The warlords accuse the militia of including al Qaeda-linked extremists.

The United States has convened an international "Contact Group" to look at ways to prevent fighting, while the United Nations and African Union are planning to send missions.

On a visit to Kenya, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer was bombarded with questions at a news conference about Washington's widely-assumed support - including large sums of cash - for the defeated warlords.

Avoiding the issue, she wished the Khartoum talks well and warned the Islamic courts' militia not to jeopardise dialogue by expanding their territorial control.

"They need to stop in their tracks," she said. "Their movement out makes all of us question their motives."

- REUTERS